The Efficacy of Various Kinds of Error Feedback for Improvement in the Writing Accuracy of Iranian EFL Learners

Mohammad Khatib,Arezoo Ashoori Tootkaboni

doi:10.5565/rev/jtl3.529

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to delve further into the effects of different corrective feedback strategies on enhancing learners’ writing accuracy both short and long term. To fulfill the purpose of the study, three classes comprising 67 female students in the context of a public high school in Astara, Iran, were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions; direct feedback with teacher-student 5 minute individual conference; indirect coded feedback and no-feedback. A pre-test ensured that learners are homogeneous regarding their previous grammatical knowledge. The study lasted for 5 weeks. There were immediate and delayed posttests to measure the writing accuracy of learners both short and long term. The results of the short-term test showed the significant superiority of direct feedback in the teacher-student individual conference group over the other groups. In contrast, the learners in the indirect coded feedback group were slightly better than the group that received instruction through direct and teacher-student conference feedback. This suggests that it is beneficial to make use of direct corrective feedback strategies when the short period mastery of the linguistic structures is needed and indirect corrective strategies are proposed when long-term mastery of the grammatical knowledge is the purpose of the educational intervention.

Highlights

A key issue of interest to both researchers and teachers in second language writing is how teachers correct students’ writing
The results revealed that corrections do not increase writing accuracy, fluency, or general language proficiency and they may have a negative effect on students’ attitudes, especially when they were required to correct their mistakes
It could be claimed that all three groups have a similar starting point

Summary

Introduction

A key issue of interest to both researchers and teachers in second language writing is how teachers correct students’ writing. The role played by corrective feedback in language acquisition has been highly controversial. Some believe that corrective feedback is a highly effective means for improving learners’. Acquisition process because it helps learners to match their utterances with target language models and increases their attention to structures that have not been acquired before and it can be the initiation of learning process Other theorists maintain that primary linguistic input is needed for triggering the learning process rather than corrective feedback Schwartz, 1993) and some go so far as to recommend abandoning corrective feedback in the classroom setting entirely

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Conclusion